A two-time Bellator tournament winner, Koreshkov has rattled of six
straight wins since he succumbed to fourth-round punches from
Askren in 2013. The Alexander
Shlemenko protégé last competed at Bellator 153 on April 22,
when he routed onetime UFC and
World Extreme Cagefighting champion Benson
Henderson across five lopsided rounds at the Mohegan Sun Arena
in Uncasville, Connecticut. Koreshkov, 26, defeated Lima by
unanimous decision to capture Bellator gold a little more than a
year ago.

Lima, who operates out of an
American Top Team affiliate in Atlanta, rebounded from his loss
to Koreshkov with a unanimous verdict over Paul Daley at
Bellator 158 on July 16. The 28-year-old Brazilian jiu-jitsu black
belt boasts 23 finishes among his 27 career wins. Victories over
former World Series of Fighting champion Steve Carl,
onetime Olympian Rick Hawn and
UFC vets Ben
Saunders (twice), Terry Martin
and Clint
Hester bolster Lima’s resume.

With the Koreshkov-Lima showdown front and center, here is what to
watch for at Bellator 164:

Native Son

Lahat needed a fresh start.

The
American Kickboxing Academy export and former Brazilian
jiu-jitsu world champion was a highly regarded prospect when he
entered the UFC in March 2014, but two violent knockout losses to
Godofredo
Castro and Diego Rivas
overshadowed his victories over Steven
Siler and Niklas
Backstrom and set him on a different path. Lahat, who holds the
rank of black belt in judo and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, has not fought
in his native Israel since he submitted Slava
Antipenko with a triangle choke nearly eight years ago.

Cleve has gone 2-2 in Bellator, with wins over Isaac
DeJesus and Matt
Bessette offset by losses to former M-1 Global
champion Daniel
Weichel and “The Ultimate Fighter Brazil” Season 1 alum John
Teixeira de Conceicao. He was an NCAA All-American wrestler at
Adams State University -- a Division II school in Alamosa,
Colorado.

Feathery Touch

Karakhanyan wants a bigger piece of the featherweight pie.

The well-traveled Millennia MMA rep snapped a two-fight losing
streak at Bellator 160 on Aug. 26, when he knocked out two-time
NCAA All-American Bubba
Jenkins in less than a minute -- 53 seconds to be exact -- at
the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. Karakhanyan, 31, has not
recorded back-to-back victories since he went on a nine-fight tear
from April 22, 2011 to Dec. 7, 2013. The Brazilian jiu-jitsu black
belt has 15 first-round finishes to his credit.

Medvedovsky has lost twice in his last three appearances,
interrupting the progress he had made with a 6-0 start to his
career. The 23-year-old last fought under the Absolute Championship
Berkut banner on March 9, when he wound up on the wrong side of a
unanimous decision against Magomed
Ginazov.

Gut Check

Consider it a mulligan of sorts.

Ovchynnikova’s organizational debut did not go according to plan at
Bellator 150 on Feb. 26, as she surrendered a unanimous decision to
Rebecca
Ruth. The Ukrainian kickboxer and muay Thai stylist touched off
her professional MMA career with eight straight wins but has gone
just 2-4 in six appearances since. Ovchynnikova has a considerable
striking background upon which to lean, but the 29-year-old Union
Gym standout has netted eight of her 10 career victories by
submission: six by armbar, one by guillotine choke and one by
rear-naked choke.

In Benitez, she faces an opponent who has tested her skills against
some of the sport’s most accomplished fighters, including reigning
UFC women’s strawweight champion Joanna
Jedrzejczyk and the great Megumi
Fujii. The 37-year-old Venezuelan last appeared at a World
Fight Tour event on June 18, when she submitted to a Celine Haga
arm-triangle choke in Madrid.